Shoujo: Ey yo!
Reaper: Who liked the Fairy Tail chapter Mashima released last week?! I did!
Levy: Oh yeah. It was an awaited chapter I believe.
Lily: So are we not going to say what was in it?
Gajeel: It had-
Shoujo: *Slaps hand over his mouth* No spoilers for the people who watch the anime!
Reaper: We don't own Fairy Tail or the characters!
The Shrimp and the Beast
Levy fixed her shoulder bag as she stared wide eyed at the large old building. Dojo? It was a Dojo right? Of course her never seeing one before might have also been part of it.
"It's so… big." She whispered.
"Well it has separate rooms for the separate styles."
Levy jumped as she heard Lucy's voice beside her. She'd almost forgotten her friend had been the one to take her there.
"Right." Levy nodded. She'd dressed in some sweatpants and a tang top for the day. Lucy had given her a hoodie to wear that would dangle around her fingers if she let her arm hang down.
"No sweaters." The blond had told her that morning before forcefully taking the clothes that the blunette had been planning to wear. Lucy had shown up at eight to collect her. "You're going there to train, not to watch."
So after she'd been forced into some 'proper training attire' they'd piled into Lucy's Kia and drove for a little while before coming to a part of the city that had less buildings then the rest of it. The Fairy Tail Dojo was a sight to behold. That much was true. It took up what looked to be like too much room.
"I know I've never seen a dojo Lu….. but I'm pretty sure that this is too big." Levy said. "And I know that it teaches more than one art but it's…. distracting?"
"Well the one who built it was strange." Lucy shrugged. "From what I heard she was more than just a bit delusional."
"Is that so?" Levy swallowed. She flinched when she heard a scream come from the Dojo. Paling slightly she took a step back. "Maybe it would be better for me to come back at a different day, you know, one when they aren't so…." She looked around the lot that only had five cars, "busy."
"This is an off week, but normally every two weeks we all try to get together and have some training and fighting." Lucy put her hands on her friend's shoulders moving her forward. "Don't worry, they won't kill you."
Levy wasn't positive but she was pretty sure she heard a 'probably' somewhere after that statement originating from the busty blonde.
"I'm home!" Lucy called as she pushed the door open.
A small group turned.
"Lucy." A man said. Someone that Levy recognized almost immediately. "It's been a while."
The blonde smiled. "Alzack! I haven't seen you since the last meet up!" Her eyes moved slowly to his arms and she smiled at the little girl in them. "Asuka, how are you?"
"Bang!" The young girl fired off her Nerf gun and the Styrofoam bullet stuck itself to Lucy's forehead.
For a moment she was still, Levy stared at her friend who stared at what had landed on her face. Then she pursed her lips and looked back to the little girl. "I see you got a new gun, you know I know how to use them too, right?"
Asuka squealed squirming until her father put her down; she then raced away as Lucy followed in a jogging pace.
"You work at the bookstore Porlyusica runs right?" Alzack asked and Levy returned her attention to him.
"Y-Yeah." She nodded.
"I'm Alzack Connell. That was my daughter Asuka, and my wife will be showing up in a few minutes. She went pick up one of the others who can't make it here on their own today."
"I'm Levy McGarden."
"Levy huh…." Alzack narrowed his eyes at her before offering her a smile. "Are you adjusting? I remember the first day you were there that you seemed a bit off."
She nodded again. "Yes. I was having a bit of trouble. But I've figured out how to deal with it bit by bit. That's partially thanks to Asuka."
"Really?" He replied surprised. "How so?"
"If I want my wish granted, I need to smile." Levy recited. "The fairies grant wishes right? Well I need to keep smiling until they grant mine." She smiled. Her thoughts trailed to Lucy saying that all of Fairy Tail would show up. "So…. since a lot of the people who train here are supposed to come today… does that mean Gajeel will show up?"
Alzack paused as he raised an eyebrow. "You want to know about Gajeel?"
Levy felt her cheeks heat up slightly. "Well he's a close… friend of mine."
"So friends then." Alzack murmured. "Well sadly Gajeel can't make it. He said something about having to work overtime because he'd taken one too many days off in the past."
'My fault.' Levy gripped her bag's strap. Her guilt was overpowered by her disappointment though. "So he won't be here." She sighed.
Alzack chuckled and she looked back at him.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing." He shook his head waving his hands. "He'll definitely be here for the next meet up."
"Then, I'll be sure to try and come by." She said with a smile. Still she was disappointed though.
"I swear to Mavis that nobody thinks when they drive!" A green haired woman stormed into the dojo. "And heaven forbid using a turn signal on the freeway!"
"Bisca!" Alzack called out to the woman. "Come meet someone."
"One sec!" Bisca called back. "How long are you planning to take?"
A young boy and girl walked forward into the dojo. One of them Levy recognized immediately. The other she'd never seen before.
"Wendy." Levy said in surprise. She'd forgotten that Lucy had told her about the teen taking part in martial arts.
"Levy!" The girl called excitedly as she ran over to give the blunette a hug. "I haven't seen you in a while. I heard…." She trailed off, her eyes looking away. "Anyway, it's great to know that you agreed to visit!"
"Well I need to get stronger!" Levy laughed lightly. "I mean I'm not exactly fear inducing at the moment."
"Levy?" The boy moved forward, hands clasped behind his head as he stared at Levy. He appeared to be around Wendy's age. High school years. And his style was incredibly familiar. "You're Levy?"
"Yeah…." Levy blinked slowly at him. "Why? What is it with my name that makes everyone get all suspicious and weird?"
He only continued to stare at her, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Why?"
"Why what?" She tilted her head scrunching her eyebrows.
"I don't get it."
"This is Romeo." Wendy explained to Levy. "He's a friend of mine at school. His dad is out of town at the moment with a guy named Wakaba and so the Connell's are watching him."
"Nice to meet you." Levy smiled with a bow. "But what did you mean by-"
"And we're walking!" Wendy waved as she shoved Romeo away avoiding Levy's oncoming question. When they were a few yards away she glared at him, whispering something. He replied with a shrug and a comment that Levy didn't hear.
"I want to know what he said." Levy muttered. The entire fairy tail guild seemed to know something about her that she herself hadn't figured out.
"Don't worry about him." Bisca said as she approached Levy. She walked over to Alzack. "Where's Asuka?"
"She's playing with Lucy." Alzack replied.
"Alright." Bisca turned to Levy. "So you're Levy McGarden? Well it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Bisca Connell. Al and I aren't martial artists so much as we are gun slingers."
"It's nice to meet you." Levy smiled with a small bow. "Please take care of me." In all the excitement she realized that since Bisca had arrived she hadn't stuttered once. The blunette smiled wider.
"I get it now." Bisca said as she stroked her chin.
"I thought we'd be dealing with something different." Alzack said to his wife.
"Wait what?" Levy asked. "Are you talking about the same thing that Romeo was? If so can you tell me what it is that you guys do and don't understand?"
The green haired female rubbed her neck. "Well it's not really our place to say what's up." She looked around the first room that was empty except for them, Wendy and Romeo. "So the others went ahead and started training?"
"Natsu you idiot!"
"Oh, that sounds like Lucy." Bisca brightened.
Running from the hall to the right of the front entrance, Natsu and a raven haired male leapt into the room. "Lucy, we didn't mean to do that." The dark haired male held up his hands.
"Of course you didn't Gray!" Lucy entered the room her eyes blazing as Asuka hid behind her legs. "You guys remember that about ninety percent of all Krav Maga techniques end with a hit to the groin don't you?" She cracked her knuckles her voice ominous in a growling tone.
"C-C'mon Luce, we…" Natsu backed away slowly his face pale. Then he shoved Gray forward. "I offer a sacrifice!"
"Yay Lucy!" Asuka cheered.
"Would you two calm down?" A man with big lips and a point on his head entered the room sighing at the scene. "I can't even hear myself think."
Another brunette male followed him. "What do you expect from them?"
"Warren! Max!" Bisca called. "Look who came by!"
The two turned to face the grinning gunslinger. Something flashed in their eyes and they scurried over.
"Levy?" The one with the point asked. "Woah, it's been ages. Since high school I think!"
"Yeah. I remember you were known for reading all the time!" The other laughed. "We had all our classes together."
The blunette looked off to the side. "I-I'm sorry. I d-don't remember."
If making a disappointed face was counted as a sport, they'd be champions at it. After a moment though one of them sighed. "Man now I get it."
"Get what?" Levy asked.
"I almost feel bad." The other said shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm Max Alors."
"Call me Warren Rocko."
Levy nodded. "It's wonderful to meet you. And I'm sorry for not remembering you from our high school days!"
"You were bad with guys right?" Max asked. "I heard that Natsu once tried to talk to you and you fainted. That's also why it was weird when you actually talked to one of us all those years ago."
"Talked to one of you?" Levy asked. "I talked to a guy in high school? I don't remember that."
Warren laughed awkwardly. "Just forget about that! No Max was just rambling!"
"But you said-"
"I didn't say anything."
"But-"
"Levy when those two talk, don't listen." Bisca put her hand on the shorter girl's shoulders. "They normally can't tell up from down."
"Hey-"
Bisca cut off Warren's reply with a quick look. "Why don't you boys go make sure that this place isn't destroyed by those three?" She suggested jerking her head in the direction of Lucy and the two boys. Lucy had Natsu pinned down while she kneeled on his back, one of his arms stuck between her knee and the small of his back. The other pinned to the ground by her foot. "Lucy, please, don't kill your boyfriend!"
"I won't!" Lucy responded. Then barely, Levy heard her say, "He'll only be half dead."
"Sorry we're late…" Mirajane shoved open the door pausing as she looked around the almost empty room. "I'm sure there were more cars out there."
"We didn't carpool like last time!" Bisca replied. "You know how that turned out."
The doctor laughed. "Of course I remember!" Walking over she continued. "Of course it was our own fault for putting Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel in the same car."
"Erza was with them though." Alzack shrugged.
"Mama! Mama!" Asuka rushed towards Bisca. "I shot Gray in the head!"
"Did you?" The woman gasped. "That's a good job Asuka! Did you hit him between the eyes?"
"Dead center!" She cheered happily.
"That's our girl!" The husband and wife cooed.
"Gray-sama!" In a flash of blue, Juvia entered the guild. "Juvia is here now!" She tackled him wrapping her arms around his neck as he pulled off nerf bullets from his forehead.
"Yeah yeah." He said nonchalantly. Despite him acting like he didn't care, Levy noticed him slightly smile, and his eyes looked softer as they moved to Juvia.
"Levy!" Juvia called. "Levy! Come meet Gray-sama!"
"Uh… okay!"
As she walked over Gray said something to Juvia, who nodded excitedly. Then she said something back to him that Levy heard the tail end off, "…n't it funny?"
"Isn't what funny?" Levy asked. She knew she wouldn't get an answer but she dared to ask anyway.
"How Juvia is with Gray-sama now!" Juvia easily said. "Juvia heard that Levy has a possible someone now too, yes?"
Levy blushed as an image of Gajeel filled her head. Of course him not having any eyes made her laugh slightly. A giggle escaped her lips and she slapped her hand over her mouth. She shook her head trying to get the image to go away. "No. I'm not ready for that right now."
"She just started talking to guys." Mira intruded. "It would be a bit frightening if she tried to date one so suddenly."
"Ah… Mira is right." Juvia laughed. "Juvia wasn't thinking."
"Mirajane, I just realized something." Levy blinked. "You said we when you came into the guild. What did you mean by we?"
"Oh," Mira clasped her hands. "Laxus is coming by to watch today!"
"Where is Laxus?" Juvia asked. Gray had since left, becoming bored with the conversation.
Looking around Mira leaned forward. Putting a hand to the side of her mouth she whispered, "He's changing Rosie's dipper."
Well that was the most unbelievable statement that could've fallen from her lips.
"He's doing what?" Juvia asked her voice going up.
"Yup." Mira snickered. "I may or may not have had something to do with it. Also Evergreen said he was responsible for the baby until she and Elfman were able to come here."
"Never try a mother when it comes to her children." Juvia nodded.
"Where's Makarov?" Mira inquired.
"I don't know." Levy admitted. "I haven't seen him since I got here."
"He went to talk to Master Bob." Natsu gasped from underneath Lucy. She had yet to let him up.
"I think Erza said she'd be driving him here." Gray added as he watched the blonde destroy the salmon haired male. When Lucy turned her glare to him he slowly backed away.
"That idiot." Mira said through gritted teeth. "She's pregnant. What is she doing coming to a dojo when she's pregnant?"
"Have you forgotten that she's Erza?" Lucy asked calmly as she leered on Gray. Natsu was crawling a safe distance away.
"She's going to be a horrible mother." Mira groaned. That's when Laxus entered carrying Rosie gently in his arms.
"Jet and Droy just pulled up with happy and the other kids."
"Why did you guys come separately?" Lucy turned to Natsu and Wendy. "If Carla and Happy were coming anyway why didn't you bring them?"
"They wanted to spend some time with Jet and Droy before the two left." Wendy said. "Since those two are great with keeping kids entertained we didn't see the harm."
"-I'm telling you that I don't want to share your food!" Carla stormed in. A nice, light yellow dress with long pink, loose sleeves floating around her knees.
"But Carla!" Happy followed soon after. "I swear I didn't do anything to it! I'm sorry I made you spill yours on your book! You can have mine! Please don't be angry at me!"
"Go away Happy!" She shouted pouting.
"No food in the guild little man." Jet grabbed the young boy who looked up with teary eyes.
"Well this is delightful." Lucy huffed. "Let's see, who hasn't shown up…. So Erza is with master, Gajeel can't come, Nab is too lazy as he is every week, Vijeeter somehow sprained his ankle, Laki is stuck at the book store so that Levy could come by and Kinana is helping her." The blunette did feel some guilt over having to make the other girls work overtime. It should've been her that was taking the shift.
Lucy continued without waiting for anyone to say something. "Freed, Elfman, and Evergreen will be showing up later. Cana is out of town, so are Gildarts, Macao, and Wakaba. Loke said he's running late, Reedus should be here in a few minutes…. Guys a lot of us are missing this week."
"So much for the big 'family gathering.'" Laxus mumbled trying to hand off Rosie to Mirajane, who shook her head.
"It's an off week." Juvia laughed.
"Well since we have a few of us here," Mira called, "this is our new friend and family member Levy McGarden. I'm guessing most, if not all of you, know her."
She waved shyly giving them a smile.
"So Levy, you have any idea what type of art you want to go for?" Mira asked her. "A certain style you were looking for?"
Levy shook her head. "No. I just need to be able to try and hold my own when I need to walk somewhere by myself."
"Why not try her in Tae Kwon Do?" Bisca suggested. "It might work for her."
Mira tilted her head. "Maybe, or should we go with Krav Maga like Lucy?"
"I could work with her." Lucy nodded. "And since she's not the fighting type, she just needs something to protect herself and disarm her opponent. Also it wouldn't require her to over exert herself in a few of the techniques."
"So Krav Maga it is." Juvia confirmed.
The rest of the guild had headed off into their different directions to start training and practicing. So with a smile Lucy lead Levy away to teach her one or two things before the master would show up.
Shoujo: Sorry for the delay guys.
Reaper: Ugh, it was supposed to be up so long ago!
Levy: Then let's hurry and get this up!
Gajeel: If you guys are so worried then finish it on time.
Lily: They'll blame it on school.
Shoujo: That's actually the reason.
Reaper: Reviewers-
JellyBeanBubbles: Don't worry your sweet head child, Lily will be showing up soon! Very soon! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
CuteFoxSage-NightShadeOwl: Smut? (Reaper: I don't remember writing smut!/ Shoujo: I would!) Anyway we know what you mean! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
Deathslayer Night: Well since they haven't really had much purpose to the plot at this moment we haven't included them very much! At some point we will be doing a side story about them and we'll be adding them every now and then but for now they won't be! Fighting ninja baby Jerza wouldn't be surprising though! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
Guest: Aww sorry for making you cry! But we're happy to hear you think it's so great! And Lily will be showing up again soon! Don't worry but for now he can't stay with Levy! And Gale… well we want to add more but the way we're planning the story…. Anyway you'll see! We will be adding more Gale! Sorry for lacking in a lot of chapters! And on the intimate moments we do have something planned for later on but you'll have to wait we're afraid! We love you too! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
Ink-Strings: More tears! We're here with hearts! And nostalgia! (Reaper: Oh gosh! For some reason I find that sweet!) Ah the finer points of the thing called language and how things can mean two different things! Yes, *Scar voice* Be prepared! And with Lily, you'll get to see him soon! It is no one's fault, that couldn't be truer! Gajeel bought a panther and we loved it! Thank you for the compliments and review, we hope you enjoyed!
Kjpcoolcat: (Shoujo:…. He'd probably give her a near heart attack all the time before they meet because he would show up at random moments and just glare and then one day he'd say something to her that would start a conversation and they'd become pretty chill friends to start off! Things would go from there!) Lily will be coming in very soon! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
LemonsandLimes1: Even if they aren't the next story we'll keep putting up the poll until all the stories are told! So if you haven't voted, you can! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
TiPoLover 22: (Reaper: I've had her seeing his face planned out since the beginning! Patience is key! I just hope you guys don't give up before we get there!) Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
Lexie and the anime: She will! We must repair! We're happy you liked the panther! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
StormWarrior88: Awww thank you! We're happy you like it! Sorry for the wait and we hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Megan F: You loved it? Yay! We tried to keep some consistencies from the original, with certain people knowing certain people and what not while at the same time keeping things dashed with our own flavor! Such as Lisanna already knowing Lucy and Levy not being a part of Fairy Tail! It's great that the Gale made you happy! We're trying to add it while not dosing the story in just them! (Reaper: This story has also become a Levy development story apparently!) Lily will be appearing soon so you have that to look forward to! And until then we can't give anything away! Thank you for reviewing and we hope you enjoyed!
Special thanks to those who followed/favorited: orangeandblackpanda, ZoeysZone, ScarletteSHERShadow, StormWarrior88, FanGirlLevy, redhead1251, PhantomPierce-Okamoto, Jerpoverlord, wildcrazything, Kaiisan, ahappygoat, and Sakura022496. Thanks to the readers as well!
Shoujo: Well before we wrap this up, here's an update on the poll!
Reaper: So far Jerza and Miraxus are tied for the next story, Nalu is in third, Gruvia in forth, and Baccana in fifth! If you want one of these couples to be our next story please vote!
Levy: This story will be ending soon right?
Lily: It would seem so.
Gajeel: Thank God.
Shoujo: We'll have to see how things go!
Reaper: Updates will hopefully be on Friday! And the next one will continue this! So don't worry!